Our world is getting smarter all the time: a connected home where the refrigerator knows that it is about to run out of milk, adaptive robots that can control important production processes in companies, self-driving cars, you name it. All these new applications of information technology and artificial intelligence systems generate vast amounts of data that need to be processed in ever-shorter timeframes. That’s not a problem for a new generation of microchips. These chips are based on innovative EUV lithography, which uses ultraviolet light and makes the chips significantly smaller, cheaper, more powerful and more energy-efficient.
New EUV lithography technology is largely supported by corporate researchers at Zeiss and Trumpf as well as academic researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering in Jena (IOF). The core of the technology consists of sensors jointly developed by the Ilmenau University of Technology and Micro-Hybrid Electronic, a company based in Hermsdorf. Micro-Hybrid Electronic specializes in miniaturized electronic circuits and infrared sensors. The innovative microchips have been used by leading manufacturers of smartphones and semiconductor products for just over two years, with more added every day. (gro)
